The credit goes to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which in 1937 pushed through laws ending the growth, trade and consumption of all forms of cannabis, including the inert but commercially useful hemp plant.

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Setting aside the arguments around pharmaceutical benefits that THC-laden hemp plants might provide, is it not silly that the government would ban an otherwise useful and taxable plant?

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The studies did not, and were never intended to, reflect reality or serve as a basis for emergency planning the SNL studies provided a useful measure to compare sites, not to analyze plant-specific accident consequences.

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These natural oils and biomaterials are tailored not only for fuel production, but also as replacements for fossil-derived petroleum and a variety of natural plant oils and compounds, making them useful in a wide range of products: from oleochemicals, to cosmetics, to foods.

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It's less useful, of course, for people who made their teeth before bomb testing started in 1955, and it will become ever less useful as more of the bomb carbon is absorbed by oceans and plant and animal life.

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It costs much more to close down a coal plant earlier than planned than to replace it with something cleaner at the end of its useful life.

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When not prescribing purges and pills to his sickly employer and his friends, Sloane crisscrossed the island on horseback or on foot, collecting plant and shrub specimens, guided by slaves from the sugar plantations with knowledge of local medically useful seeds and grasses.

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